Sean Penn smashes fan's camera in San Francisco

No doubt inspired by Alec Baldwin’s latest impressive run of public confrontations, Sean Penn came back strong Tuesday night in an attempt to retake his title of most volatile celebrity in public.

According to TMZ, Penn was at the Lobby Bar at San Francisco’s St. Regis Hotel when he saw a flash go off from another patron’s cell phone and realized a man was trying to take his photo.

A witness at the bar told the website that Penn went after the guy — who was not a paparazzo — and screamed at him, “Do we look like (expletive) zoo animals?”

No … zoo animals are usually much calmer.

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Penn — who was in town to speak at a sales conference — then grabbed the guy’s phone and slammed it to the ground.

Hopefully, the guy was at the end of his phone contract.

TMZ has video on its site that starts at about that part of the incident, in which Penn can be heard saying, “I’ll make you eat the phone … get the (expletive) out of here!”

Shortly thereafter, Penn complained to hotel management, saying, “You should do something about that.” The site said a manager approached the (former) fan of Penn’s and asked if he wanted to call police, which he didn’t. He then left the bar. The man reportedly attended the sales conference Penn spoke at and was still wearing his name tag.